MCA Milestones

MCA General Membership approves MCA Capacity Building Team recommendation for MCA Leadership Team to spearhead a MCA Partnership Search for 2016.

MCA joins Executive Office of Elder Affairs – Alzheimer’s Support Services Program (ADSSP) Advisory Committee to assist with strategic and operational advice during the planning phase; improvement and quality assurance during the implementation phase; overall alignment of grant to other “dementia capability” activities in Massachusetts. Major objectives of the grant include: Create and sustain a comprehensive dementia-capable Home and Community Based Service (HCBS) system with No Wrong Door (NWD) access for individuals with dementia and their caregivers; Ensure access to a system of culturally competent high quality dementia-capable HCBS

MCA joins Jewish Family & Children’s Service Alzheimer’s/Related Disorders Family Support Program and the Executive Office of Elder Affairs, with support from the Tufts Health Plan Foundation and myriad of other dementia friendly organizations, as a planning and sponsoring partner to help launch a state-wide initiative to create a Dementia Friendly Massachusetts by drawing together key-stakeholders for a summit

One Message – Many Voices: Consumer Conference on Alzheimer’s Disease took place at Tufts Health Plan in Watertown, MA and three sites in the community. All together 325 diverse older adults and ten cultural groups received the conference materials and training.

Mass Councils on Aging and Senior Center Directors award MCA with “A Welcoming Place for All” Cultural Competency Training Grant. The MCA team able to conduct 4 regional trainings and reach 22 communities with an amazing cultural competency sensitivity and tool training.

MCA joins Executive Committee and Diversity/Inclusion Work Group of Massachusetts Healthy Aging Collaborative

MCA joins Jewish Family & Children’s Service Alzheimer’s/Related Disorders Family Support Program as a promotional partner for the “Toward A Dementia-Inclusive Community: Tools and Inspiration from National Innovators” Symposium

A Professional Conference for Elder Service Providers “Trends and Transitions: Preparing for Changes In Service Delivery to Diverse Elders” held at UMass Boston on April 26, 2012. The conference goal was to educate service providers who serve diverse elders on the Affordable Care Act and its potential impact on service delivery. The keynote was delivered by Christie L. Hagar, J.D., M.P.H. Regional Director, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Region One New England. Ann L. Hartstein, Massachusetts Secretary of Elder Affairs moderated panelists: Julius Yang, M.D., Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center; Kenneth Peterson, Ph.D., APRN-BC, UMass Worcester; Sharon Perryman, BSN, MHA Director of Operations, People First Homecare & Hospice. The conference was attended by 150 professionals in the elder care network.

2011

Gene A. Mazzella, Geriatric Care Advisor and Advocate, Senior Care Works elected 3rd Chair of the Multicultural Coalition on Aging after seven years of dynamic state and national recognition under the leadership of Marcie Freeman.

Through a partnership with the American Red Cross, the first Joanne Prince Scholarship is awarded to a student of color seeking CNA training.

2006

Aging Well Together: Our Health is In Our Hands conference takes place at Tufts Health Plan in Watertown, MA. The curriculum focuses on chronic disease self-management and is delivered in 10 languages and dialects to 315 diverse older adults.

2005

Coalition hosts Marie Smith, National President of AARP Coalition, as part of an AoA grant to provide Medicare and Medicaid eligibility and benefits information to limited English proficiency populations.

Aging Well Together: Living Well Together conference takes place at Bentley College, providing a program about caring for each other with informal and formal resources as we age in our multicultural community. Attended by 325 diverse older adults, delivered in 11 languages, this conference addressed the broadest cultural spectrum yet.

2002

The Coalition takes a leadership role in the Boston Partnership for Older Adults, a citywide initiative to design and deliver a comprehensive and accessible system of community support for Boston’s older adults.

2001

Aging, Culture and Health: Creating a Culturally Integrated System, a conference for providers, brought together speakers from government and private sector to address the organizational challenges to providing culturally competent care to older adults of diverse cultures in our communities today.

The Coalition begins to be sought by others as a model. Presentations are made at national meetings of associations such as the American Society on Aging/National Council on Aging. Articles on the value of the Coalition to its members are published in newsletters of the ASA.

2000

Aging Well Together: In Mind, Body and Spirit conference took place at the University of Massachusetts/Boston in eight languages, with 525 seniors attending.

Roberta Rosenberg and Joanne Prince, co-chairs of the Multicultural Coalition on Aging, won the second annual Edward L. Cooper Award for Senior Advocacy from the City of Boston.

Coalition members hosted Harvard Medical School freshmen in a program, entitled “The Social Context of Medical Care,” to increase awareness of the influence of culture, language and socioeconomic status on health.

First conference for health-care professionals, Cultures and Aging: Meeting the Challenges beyond the Year 2000, focused on the challenges and rewards of providing culturally and linguistically appropriate services to older adults.

Aging Well Together: An Asian Perspective on Caregiving took place at Tufts University, with 325 diverse seniors attending.

The Multicultural Coalition on Aging received the 1996 Hseih Award, from the Family/Culture promoting Asian/non-Asian collaboration.

1995

Aging Well Together: A Multicultural Perspective on Caregiving conference took place at Roxbury Community College, with 250 diverse seniors attending.

1994

Founding members came together to produce a health information conference for older people in Greater Boston, inclusive of many racial, ethnic and linguistic groups. With a small grant from The Boston Foundation and the commitment of the original member agencies, the Coalition undertook to improve the environment in which health care is delivered to older people by increasing the knowledge about and sensitivity to cultural influences on health practices and health-care delivery.